subject: Basketball Rebounding Drills - 3 Things Your Drills Should Do [print this page] Author: Gary Donovan Author: Gary Donovan
Someone once said, "Offense wins games; defense wins championships." But since you need rebounding to accomplish both, I guess good rebounding wins both games and championships. The average team will struggle to make a 50% field goal percentage - and that's the professional teams. High school and youth basketball would be considerably lower than 50%. With those kinds of odds, getting a second shot at the basket is extremely important if you want to win anything; stopping your opponent from getting a second shot is essential if you don't want them steamrolling over you. So good rebounding, then, is quite often the key to winning the game of basketball. Anyone can learn to rebound. You don't need great height (though it helps); you don't need a fantastic vertical jump (though that helps too.) What players do need is good instruction and the right attitude, and plenty of practice. Most basketball rebounding drills are slightly different versions of the same drill, where the ball is tossed up off the backboard and players rebound against other players. Which is fine, since that is essentially what happens in the game. But it can't be a free for all - players need a focus in the drills. When you are running your rebounding drills in practice, be sure to make your players do the following: 1. Get In Position. They need to know where the rebound is most likely to land, and move to the spot the moment the ball is shot. Too many players stand around and watch the shot, or wait for the ball to come to them. It won't. More often than not, the ball will rebound back in the direction from which it was shot, and land about two thirds of the way back. So if a player takes a three pointer from the top of the key, expect the rebound to likely land somewhere around the foul line in front of him. 2. Box Out. As soon as the shot is taken, players choose a man to box out, and then pivot into him and hit him hard, at about the middle of the thigh. This will put him off balance and out of the rebounding scene. But if your players don't box out - and it is too often a malady among younger players that they watch the shot instead of preparing to rebound - then the offensive player is going to step around them and be in position for the rebound - and a second shot. 3. Be Aggressive and Persistent. In the key, nothing will take the place of aggression and persistence. Players need to be ball hungry on the rebound, they need to go for the loose ball, they can't give up until the ball is in their hands. That means diving for the ball, chasing it out of bounds, ripping it from someone else's fingertips. Anything short of a foul. Practice drills should simulate a game situation if you want the skills learned to carry over into the game. You need to enforce these three things in your basketball rebounding drills if you want your players to rebound effectively in the game, because you can be sure that if your players aren't eager to get the ball, the other team will be. How do you enforce them? How do you focus your players on hitting the boards hard? I provide "encouragement" in the form of additional exercise - a rebounding drill such as a three-on-three box out drill can have more intensity added to it by having the three players that get beaten to the rebound perform pushups, or sit-ups, or some exercise of your choice. The issue of pride itself will make players work harder - they know that having to get down on the floor for pushups means they've been beaten. You'll find some of the basketball rebounding drills I use in my practices on this page: Basketball Rebounding Drills from my Better Basketball Coaching website.About the Author:
Gary Donovan has been coaching varsity basketball for over fifteen years, and playing the game for many years more than that. Read more of his coaching advice on his website Better Basketball Coaching.
